


On Means of Acquisition

by Anonymous



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean
Genre: F/M, Juvenilia, Post-Curse of the Black Pearl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-06
Updated: 2009-06-06
Packaged: 2017-10-02 10:05:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You stole my boat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Means of Acquisition

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to [Dove](http://hija_paloma.livejournal.com)' remark, on her own story, [Settling the Debt](http://www.culturalinfidelities.com/Dove/settling-the-debt.htm), that, "I have yet to come across any fic in which she [Anamaria] gets her damn boat."

_You stole my boat_, she reminds him, at every possible opportunity, and some impossible ones. Clambering down into the Pearl's hold, she yells across the deck, her voice audible in storms. When she's checking the damage under the waterline after a particularly brutal exchange of cannon, Jack knows what she's thinking when she's underwater, and when she glares at him when she's safely back on deck, he can almost hear it.

_You stole my boat._

He's stopped excusing himself, stopped apologizing long ago. He does mean to give her a boat, just—not yet. He likes having Anamaria on board. He likes the way her voices mixes with Gibbs's when they've the noon watch and sing old tavern songs together. He likes the way she can bargain with the shopkeepers and the way she can almost but not quite drink him under the table. He likes Anamaria, and although he'll never tell her, she knows it.

But, as she reminds him constantly, _you stole my boat._

_You stole my boat._

Jack doesn't like being reminded of this; he's a pirate, but he's not a thief, and he doesn't like thinking that Anamaria stays with him, with the Pearl, because he owes her. He wants to think that she stays because she wants to.

Anamaria is a lot like him. She only does what she wants to, but she can hold a grudge forever. You stole my boat, she says. _You stole my boat_. He's sick of it. But he can't get her a boat, can he? No. Because if he got her a boat, then she'd leave, and—well. Jack doesn't like to think about Anamaria leaving. He also doesn't like to think about _why_ he doesn't like to think about Anamaria leaving.

When she comes back to the Pearl one night flushed and laughing, Jack thinks that maybe she's won at dice, or found a loose-lipped sailor who's spilled a few too many details about where his captain's anchored. When she grabs him and drags him below, he thinks she wants to check the coordinates or warn him about something stupid that their newest cabin-boy has done on land. He doesn't expect her to pull him closer and kiss him.

It's not as if it's never happened before, but it's always unexpected. It's always a gift, and he takes it greedily. They end up in his hammock, dark limbs made darker by sun tangling. In the morning, when the light wakes them both, her hair is tangled with his, and it takes a few minutes and much cursing before either of them can sit up. Jack swings his feet to the floor, but before he can stand, Anamaria's hand is on his wrist.

"I got a boat. I bought a boat. I want you to pay me back."

Jack freezes for a moment. He's frozen in the Caribbean, and he's not moving although he's Jack Sparrow. And Anamaria has a boat. None of this makes any sense, but Anamaria's hand is still on his wrist, and Anamaria doesn't lie to her captain. Even if he's no longer her captain, as would be the case if she does have a boat, and there it is again. Anamaria has a boat.

"I'm not buying you a boat," Jack snaps, and even to him, his voice sounds queer. "I'll get you a boat. A bigger one. A better one. But I won't buy you one."

Anamaria sighs. "Jack," she says, "you'll never buy anything that you can steal. I don't want a stolen boat. I don't want a boat that you got in some mysterious way. I want a boat that's mine. All mine. And I'm not asking you to buy me a boat anyway. It's bought already. I'm asking you to pay for the boat you already stole from me. Savvy?" And she's even smiling a little.

"And last night?" he says. "What was that?" Anamaria slaps him for an answer. He can almost hear her teeth grind. It was a stupid question, but he doesn't quite know the answer to it, and he also doesn't know the answer to the question he's not going to ask. He'd like to know if last night will ever happen again, and that's an even stupider question. There are no guarantees on the ocean. No promises of any kind of future for a pirate. The only thing that's sure for Jack is the Pearl, and normally, that's enough.

"Jack," she reminds him, as if he needs reminding, "you stole my boat." He has to admit that she has a point, but that doesn't mean that he's actually going to admit that. Jack Sparrow has five tattoos, more scars than he likes to think about, one ship, four bottles of rum in his cabin, an infinite number of enemies, and a silver tongue. None of them will do him any good at this moment, he knows, but that doesn't mean he can't try. It also doesn't mean that he does try.

The look in her eyes, the set of her mouth—it's the same look that's in Jack's eyes, the same tilt to his mouth. It's the look every captain has, and when Jack recognizes it, he knows that he's lost Anamaria.

And then the Pearl murmurs to him, and he remembers. He can't have lost Anamaria, because he never had her, because the Pearl's always had him, and there's no room for another. That's all there is to it. She has her boat now, and he has always had his ship, and it never would have worked between them, anyway. She was just waiting until she got her boat, they knew that. He'll never leave the Pearl, and the Pearl had only been temporary for Anamaria.

"Godspeed, Captain," he says, and yanks on his pants in undignified haste. Anamaria rises a little more slowly and puts on her shirt and breeches. She leaves the Pearl with six gold coins in her hand and without a backwards glance.

The Pearl watches her go with something like regret. Jack doesn't watch.


End file.
